The Skokie, Illinois Holocaust Monument unveiled in May of 1987 and defiled by Jew-hating cowards with spray paint that night while the village slept. Outraged I wrote this poem since revised. I also wrote a letter/invitation to the thugs printed in the Skokie Review inviting them to meet me by the memorial with baseball bats. Alas they seemed to have ignored my offer. Then again given who they are, they probably couldn't read the letter anyway."Dignity Restored"by Alan D. Busch Holy martyrs … kedoshim
For whom monument tall
Shouts defiantly: “NEVER AGAIN!”at last and for all.
Thus hatred's reminder,its insatiable, implacable aim,
weighing heavily as it should upon humanity’s unforgivable shame.
Atop the bronze mount does stand there remain
Remnants of countless savagely slain:
a mother whose babe has cried its last,
an elderly Jew to whom a boy clings fast.
A partisan fighter whose gestures ignite …
one spark of the hope that flickered by night.
Amidst the rubble of days …That which had been...
through the ages a beacon for men ...the Torah commanding
“Thou Shalt Not Kill ...”albeit in ruins though applicable still!
to our lives which came after,relatively free, of terror's ability to blind us who see.
Now tearful, silently stoic first gazewhile vigilance slept, its fires not ablaze ...
why desecrate this monument, a tribute to those
in whose memory we recall
so few of their woes?
Nary a night did pass ere an evil befell,
and reminded, were we all, of heaven and hell.
Now gone were the tears that had welcomed its sight,
but ready were the many to stand and fight
an ugly reminder whose obscenities told …of times long since and graves since cold.
Aroused and awakened this community alert,whose monument remained defiled as such,
to remember one and all, incredulous and carefree,
that history was not over …as they had hoped it might be.
A garden became this memorial soon, and erased were the lies
that had blackened the truth.Dignity restored its shiny gloss to words read anew
…of six million lost.
Toward heaven it points in neither doubt nor shame,
history reminding our memories lame.
That even those departed …must struggle to hone
the spade that will dig out
this spot
as
their
own.
Alan D. Busch copyright@2007
For whom monument tall
Shouts defiantly: “NEVER AGAIN!”at last and for all.
Thus hatred's reminder,its insatiable, implacable aim,
weighing heavily as it should upon humanity’s unforgivable shame.
Atop the bronze mount does stand there remain
Remnants of countless savagely slain:
a mother whose babe has cried its last,
an elderly Jew to whom a boy clings fast.
A partisan fighter whose gestures ignite …
one spark of the hope that flickered by night.
Amidst the rubble of days …That which had been...
through the ages a beacon for men ...the Torah commanding
“Thou Shalt Not Kill ...”albeit in ruins though applicable still!
to our lives which came after,relatively free, of terror's ability to blind us who see.
Now tearful, silently stoic first gazewhile vigilance slept, its fires not ablaze ...
why desecrate this monument, a tribute to those
in whose memory we recall
so few of their woes?
Nary a night did pass ere an evil befell,
and reminded, were we all, of heaven and hell.
Now gone were the tears that had welcomed its sight,
but ready were the many to stand and fight
an ugly reminder whose obscenities told …of times long since and graves since cold.
Aroused and awakened this community alert,whose monument remained defiled as such,
to remember one and all, incredulous and carefree,
that history was not over …as they had hoped it might be.
A garden became this memorial soon, and erased were the lies
that had blackened the truth.Dignity restored its shiny gloss to words read anew
…of six million lost.
Toward heaven it points in neither doubt nor shame,
history reminding our memories lame.
That even those departed …must struggle to hone
the spade that will dig out
this spot
as
their
own.
Alan D. Busch copyright@2007
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